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Bible Science Experiments for Kids

By Miska Rynsburger ; Updated September 29, 2017

Sunday School is an intimate setting to teach children to follow in Jesus' footsteps.

When teaching Bible lessons to children, science experiments can get them involved and help illustrate the moral in the story. Use simple items to set up science demonstrations to create exciting, memorable lessons for your children. Encourage students to try these experiments and discuss them at home.

Fruits of the Spirit

Keep anger under control with fruits of the spirit.

When filled with the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23), people will find their mind and soul are calm and peaceful. Clean and dry a pair of 2-liter bottles. Paint one bottle white with tempera paint and the other bottle black. Secure a small balloon on the neck of each bottle when dried. Using a permanent marker, write the fruits of the spirit on the outside of the white bottle; love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, kindness and self-control.

Expose both bottles to the heat of the sun or a heat lamp for 30 minutes. The balloon on the black bottle will fill and expand because the black bottle heats up faster and the air expands. This represents a person filling with anger and negativity. The bottle "filled" with the fruits of the spirit remains "calm" and "peaceful."

Clean a Penny

Wash a penny just as Jesus washes away sins.

The copper on a penny is shiny until it is exposed, over time, to oxygen. The copper atoms, when combined with oxygen molecules, create a new molecule called copper-oxide. Copper-oxide turns a shiny penny a dark, dirty brown.

Tell students that the dirty penny represents people covered in sin. Place lemon juice in a paper cup. Lemon juice is an acid that will dissolve copper-oxide, rendering the penny once again clean and shiny. Lemon juice can represent Jesus' love for people and his forgiveness of sins. Place the dirty penny into the lemon juice and watch as the acid washes away the copper-oxide, just as Jesus washes away sins.

Diet Coke and Mentos Fountain

Put the love of Jesus in your heart and you will bubble over with joy.

When people put their faith in the love of God and follow his ways, they cannot help but bubble over with joy and spread happiness to those around them. Illustrate this point for students by taking them outside and opening the top of a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke. This bottle represents a person. A roll of Mentos candies represents God's love and faithfulness.

Explain to the children that people accept God's love into their lives, the effects are dramatic. Drop in the Mentos candies into the Diet Coke and then get back quickly from the bottle. A fountain of Diet Coke bubbles will shoot up into the air. The gum arabic coating on the candies reacts with the aspartame in the Diet Coke, resulting in lots of bubbles shooting through the narrow neck of the bottle.

Remove the Iron

Take the iron out of your cereal as you take the bad thoughts out of your mind.

Many children have eaten or are familiar with corn flakes or Total breakfast cereal. Surprise children by removing flakes of iron from a bowl of cereal and use this to illustrate how we must remove the bad thoughts from our minds.

Pour 1 cup of Total cereal into a zip-lock plastic bag. Add 1 cup of warm water to dissolve the cereal flakes. Close the bag and allow students to help squish the bag, dissolving the flakes. After the cereal looks fully dissolved in the water, run a magnet along the outside of the bag and watch as small, black flakes of iron collect near the magnet. A neodymium magnet, purchased from a hardware or electronics store, will produce dramatic results. Explain to students that the same way the iron flakes were removed from the cereal, students must remove the bad thoughts from their minds.

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About the Author

Miska Rynsburger began her career as a writer in 2009 by authoring a book titled "It's Time to Play Outside." She is a former elementary school teacher turned stay-at-home mom and freelance writer. Miska holds a Bachelor of Arts in humanities from Hope College and a master's degree in educational leadership from Grand Valley State University.